Fonseca teachers taking the lead

FALL RIVER — Changes are happening at the Mary Fonseca Elementary School on Wall Street. And in many cases it’s the teachers who are driving them.

Fonseca, recently described by Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown, as one of the district’s “most neediest schools,” has more than 800 students in pre-kindergarten to Grade 5. More than 90 percent of those students come from low-income families.

Here’s one example of a teacher-led change at the school:

Students’ misbehavior in classrooms had been an issue at Fonseca. It has led to disruption in the classroom and constant referrals to the office.

Teachers sought to address it. Noting the school only had one school adjustment counselor and a shortage of student wellness staff, the consensus was students’ social-emotional needs weren’t being addressed. Students could learn coping and conflict resolution skills. So when a teaching position became vacant — a second music teacher position — a group of them suggested that it be converted to a wellness teacher position.

They went to the School Committee on Sept. 8 to state their case. The

committee didn’t need much convincing to approve the request.

“I’m happy this came from faculty. And I will support it,” School Committee Vice Chairman Mark Costa told that group at the time. “Part of getting a child ready to learn is being able to get through to that child, otherwise you’re never going to make any progress. I certainly think this is a creative way of using resources within your own building.”

Costa added, “I think we need to be looking throughout the district for more initiatives coming from faculty.”

That wellness teacher is now teaching a period of wellness a week in each classroom.

Based on students’ academic performance over the last few years, Fonseca is rated a Level 3 school by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. That rating means the school is among the lowest 20 percent of schools statewide in terms of student achievement. And Fonseca had ranked low among that group. It’s already showing signs of turning around.

According to highlights from last spring’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests provided by the school department, Fonseca students met their growth targets for the current year. A few more years of similar growth could enable the school to exit Level 3. In each subject area, math, English language arts and science, Fonseca students improved proficiency by a few percentage points.

Fonseca has a new principal in Michael Ward, formerly Spencer Borden Elementary School’s head administrator. Ward said recently that he welcomes the collaborative approach. He said it’s worked at his previous school.

“We’re just in the beginning of the process,” Ward said, adding that changes and teaching at the school must be “student-centered.”

He’s asking teachers to adopt a “growth mindset.” It’s something “you constantly have to continue,” Ward said, noting that teaching occurs in cycles.

“The greatest part about teaching, it’s a great profession, is you start all over again.”

In October, a group of four teachers, along with the school’s new principal Michael Ward, Mayo-Brown and Fall River Educators Association President Rebecca Cusick will head to Washington, D.C., to take part in an Institute for Teaching and Learning sponsored by the National Educators Association Foundation.

Fonseca received an NEA grant to continue work around teacher collaboration for the year.

“We believe they have the collective will to take the school in a new direction,” Cusick said.

It was quite evident that Fonseca teachers would like greater input into school improvement strategies and design,” Mayo-Brown said in a recent email. “As a result, we are looking at a different type of ‘intervention’ for Fonseca, one where school-turnaround is teacher led/driven, as a strategy to help exit their Level 3 status. We believe the resources from NEA will support our work together to support this type of school redesign.”

“We’re working on a transition in this school. And hoping we will see something positive,” said Brenda Boudreau, one of the teachers who will head to Washington, during a recent open house at the school.

“In order to get us up to Level 1 we’re going to need teacher-administrator collaboration,” Boudreau said.

Nathan Couto, who teaches English language arts for third-graders, will also be heading to Washington next month. He sounded enthusiastic about the work to foster more teacher collaboration.

“We can almost restructure the school from the bottom up,” Couto said.